Here’s how to be cool

Did you know that you can double-tap L1 to holster your pistol? If you do so, Arthur does a cool little flair and spins the weapon in his hand before sliding it into the holster.

You can also hip fire a single revolver and fan the hammer by pressing fire without aiming first.

Now for the coolest tip of all: if you press square while aiming, you dive. This is handy for getting out of the line of fire and into cover. It’s also great for slowing downtime with Dead Eye before diving, doing your best Max Payne impression. You can’t fire while diving, unfortunately.

What we don’t recommend is sprinting through doors; you’ll look silly and someone will undoubtedly call you a “Moron”. Don’t be that guy.

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Advanced horse tactics

Did you know you can jump down onto your horse’s back from any height? Well, you can. I’m sure you would smash your balls into oblivion in real life, but it’s completely safe in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Here’s another horse trick: if you whistle by pressing up on the d-pad, your horse comes to you; if you hold up on the d-pad, your horse follows you. Your horse also regenerates its stamina and health cores when hitched, so hitch whenever possible.

Always carry at least one horse revival kit

If you don’t want to be forced to mercy kill your mare, you should always make sure you’re carrying a horse revival kit with you. These can be bought in any general store.

If your horse gets injured, you have a limited time to bring it back around with a horse revival kit as it lays on the floor, bleeding out. If you don’t use one of these kits, your horse will be gone forever, along with the bonding level you’ve built up with your steed. R.I.P., Roach.

Upgrade Dutch’s lodgings as soon as possible

In your camp, head to the ledger besides the cash box and use it to upgrade Dutch’s lodgings. It’ll cost you $220. You can check out our camp upgrade guide here.

Doing this inspires the rest of your gang members to contribute more, taking some of the pressure off you. This means you have more time to take part in other activities, such as ripping off a rabbit’s arse. Upgrading the camp also improves your Honor Rank.

Get the map for fast travel

Once you’ve upgraded Dutch’s lodgings, you will unlock a new upgrade: a map. This map costs $325, but it allows you to fast travel from camp.

There’s a lot of travelling in Red Dead Redemption 2, so this should ease your load a little – though you do still have to travel into camp to fast travel. Or you could use a stagecoach, for a price. But anything that makes travelling across Red Dead Redemption 2’s huge map is welcome.

Up on d-pad while aiming is a versatile tool

If you tap up on the d-pad while aiming, Arthur will aim into the air. Tap the right trigger and you’ll fire off a warning shot.

This can be used to intimidate NPCs, scare off wildlife, and to be a general nuisance. Do with it what you will.

Get through a portion of the story to unlock a fence and extra holster

If you’re looking to pawn off stolen goods, you’ll need to get through the story a bit first. Power through and eventually you will unlock a fence, where you can sell illicit gains.

Left on the d-pad switches shoulder while aiming

Unless I somehow missed it, the game doesn’t tell you this at any point. If you take aim and tap left on the d-pad, you will switch shoulders. Obviously, this is handy when you’re clearing out interiors especially.

Go for three star kills in hunts

So, you want that perfect pelt? Not only do you have to use the right ammo to bag perfect hunting kills, but you also need to make sure the animal is top quality.

Choose toggle to run in the options

There’s only so much tapping X/A we can manage. Red Dead Redemption 2 expects you to exert yourself to make Arthur run, but there’s a toggle in the options that you should switch on. Toggle to run changes it so you only have to press it once to break into a run. It will change your life.

Complete challenges to improve your attributes and get reinforced gear

If you complete the first, third, seventh and tenth challenges in one of the nine categories, you’ll unlock reinforced gear from the Trapper. Having a full set of gear will unlock additional bonuses to your stats, such as increased health, more ammo capacity or a reduced weapon degradation rate.

Attributes can also be improved by completing challenges. Once you’ve collected a complete set of gear, you get a permanent bonus tank to your main attribute bars. Complete all the sets and you’ll get a second bonus tank linked to that attribute, so it’s worthwhile attempting this early on.